#TopTenTuesday My Bookish Resolutions – An Update

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post. Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists. Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s topic is a Freebie so we’re invited to choose any past topic or come up with one of our own. I decided to revisit my Bookish Resolutions from the Top Ten Tuesday topic on 12th January 2021 in order to see what progress I’ve made.


  1. Read the remaining 7 books on my Classics Club list – I have only three to go now – Business As Usual, Vanish In An Instant and Mrs Palfrey At the Claremont.
  2. Complete the What’s In A Name and When Are You Reading? challenges –  I’ve only managed to read 2 books that fit the six categories of the What’s In A Name challenge but I’m making much better progress with the When Are You Reading? challenge as I need only two more book to match all of the time periods.
  3. Take part in the 20 Books of Summer 2021 reading challenge – I posted my list of books I hope to read for the challenge which commences today.
  4. Read and review the 24 books on my NetGalley shelf with publication dates prior to 31st December 2020 – Unfortunately blog tour deadlines means I’ve had to concentrate on more recent arrivals so I still have 22 to go.
  5. Retain my 80% plus feedback ratio on NetGalley – I’m doing OK with this one as I’m at 88% currently and if I can make some progress with the previous resolution and resist requesting more titles, you never know I might be able to hit 90%!
  6. Read the 5 books on The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2021 shortlist before the winner is announced -This one’s looking unlikely as, so far, I’ve only read Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell and A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville and I’m still working my way through the audiobook version of The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams.
  7. Read and review the 7 books won from Readers First published prior to 31st December 2020 – I have 6 to go, all of which are on my 20 Books of Summer list
  8. Reduce the number of titles on my Want To Read shelf on Goodreads from 857 to 500 or fewer – Thanks to a radical approach I’ve adopted recently, deleting anything added prior to May 2018 that I don’t own a copy of, I’ve achieved this. OK, it still totals 497! I plan to work through the shelf using the same approach every month from now on.
  9. Read and review the remaining 6 books received from authors before I paused accepting new review requests – Unfortunately for the authors concerned, I still have five to go.
  10. Visit a literary festival in person – I’m hopeful the full relaxation of coronavirus restrictions in the months ahead will make a visit to Henley Literary Festival in October possible.

If you made any bookish resolutions for this year, how are you getting on?

#TopTenTuesday Book Titles – DO Quote Me

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post. Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists. Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.


For this week’s topic we’re invited to choose quotations from books that fit a particular theme. I’ve turned the topic slightly on its head by coming up with a list of book titles that are quotations from other works of literature.

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell (from the novel Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov)
This Green and Pleasant Land by Ayisha Malik (from the poem ‘Jerusalem’ by William Blake)
Things Bright and Beautiful by Anbara Salam (from the hymn ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ by Cecil Frances Alexander)

And we can’t go far without coming across titles that are quotations from Shakespeare, can we?

Brave New World by Alduous Huxley (from The Tempest)
By The Pricking Of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie (from Macbeth)
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (from Macbeth)

And a couple more Agatha Christie titles…

A Pocketful of Rye by Agatha Christie (from the nursey rhyme, ‘Sing A Song of Sixpence’)
The Mirror Crack’d From Side To Side by Agatha Christie (from the poem ‘The Lady of Shalott’ by Alfred Tennyson)

Top Ten Tuesday A Pocketful of Rye The Mirror Crack'd

And finally, a great borrower of Beatles’ song titles…

Please, Mister Postman by Alan Johnson
The Long and Winding Road by Alan Johnson

Top Ten Tuesday About A Boy Please Mr Postman The Long and Winding Road